We believe the resident San Diego population has the right to receive the training needed to compete for local career opportunities in STEM. To this end, we have developed a mentoring program, MINDSET (Maximizing INclusion and Diversity in Science, Engineering, and Technology), that strives to diversify the San Diego STEM workforce. To meet this goal, MINDSET has the following components: 1) equipping graduate students with tools for effective mentoring, leadership, and communication; 2) providing near-peer mentoring for community college students to show careers in research are appropriately aspirational and rewarding; 3) providing graduate students with local and national opportunities to present their research; and 4) affording students with opportunities to learn about STEM careers.
MINDSET was piloted at San Diego State University (SDSU) in 2016-2017. Graduate students from science and engineering met bimonthly with faculty advisors for mentorship, where we covered topics on STEM careers, combatting bias and microaggressions with Prof. Sohl, Prof. Ricardo Zayas, Prof. Jillian Maloney, Prof. George Youssef, and Prof. Joaquin Camacho. This pilot year allowed us to establish the program infrastructure required for scaling our program to expand mentoring components for our SDSU students and to include the community college population.
MINDSET program is led by Prof. Christal Sohl (link), Prof. Dustin Thoman (link) and Prof. Gary Smith (link).
Please email Prof. Sohl (csohl<at>mail.sdsu.edu) for more details, and keep an eye out in January for a call for 2018 MINDSET Fellows.
We know our diversity helps drive our scientific success. Please join us in supporting our talented students here!